The use of wood-burning stoves and other similar fuel-burning stoves which rely on radiation and convection of the stove itself are well known and have often been used to heat various rooms in houses in lieu of or supplemental to other heating methods. Such stoves are becoming more in vogue in view of the continually increasing costs for running more sophisticated centralized heating systems relying on oil or electricity.
These stoves are typically metal and burn wood, coal or other similar fuel to raise the temperature of the metal sufficiently to radiate and convect heat throughout the room where the stove is employed. A door is provided on the front of the stove which allows access for adding fuel and removing the ashes or other debris after the fuel has been burned. In addition, the door usually has openings which enhance radiation from the stove and create a draft to provide air containing oxygen to ignite the fuel and maintain combustion within the stove.
These stoves have been characterized by many different designs and functions; however, most of these are relatively ineffective in maintaining sufficient combustion to burn all the fuel within the stove. Also, there are significant problems in initiating the fire within the stove because without proper drafting, smoke may be released into the room until complete ignition is achieved.
Although attempts have been made to overcome these problems, they have been largely ineffective. An example of approaches to achieve better combustion is the stove shown in the U.S. Pat. No. 1,607,101 to Savereid. The Savereid stove includes a baffle across the center of the stove between the fire and the chmney for baffling the smoke and gas to achieve a more uniform heating throughout the stove rather than having a large portion of the heat pass directly up the chimney. Another example is U.S. Pat. No. 704,331 to Howard which relates to a heating stove having a cast iron fire pot. Cold air enters the front part of the stove via a damper where it is divided into two flow paths. One flow path is upwardly through a grate disposed toward the front of the stove, and the other flow path extends rearwardly through the ash pit and upwardly through openings into the combustion chamber where it mixes with gases given off by the fuel to achieve so-called "perfect combustion". Other examples of stoves relating to damper arrangements for changing the flow path include the U.S. patents to Hughes et al U.S. Pat. No. 1,204,773; to Waters U.S. Pat. No. 728,527; and to Card U.S. Pat. No. 2,174,347.
The problem with these stoves in their attempt to create more efficient burning is their failure to achieve secondary combustion with new oxygen as it flows into the stove. In addition, these stoves often require rather complex and sophisticated entry and exit flow paths and related apparatus to achieve the necessary combustion. This, of course, raises the cost of manufacturing these stoves and detracts users from buying stoves which are rather complex in operation.